The Wanted - Battleground
The Wanted released Battleground this week, the follow-up to their highly praised self-titled debut.
Whereas their 2010 effort was praised for its arguable diversity, their sophomore record struggles to achieve that same variety as the band lean towards the boy-band, club standards.
In fairness to the quintet, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as evidenced by album-opener (and chart-topping hit) 'Glad You Came'.
The dynamic of the vocals work well on this track, and indeed throughout Battleground, and there are little surprises that make The Wanted more interesting than a boy-band should be.
Building on their debut, the follow-up is a crisp, clean club-pop record, one that typifies the Simon Cowell era of the charts.
That's not to descredit the boys, as they certainly show more passion and talent than a lot of X Factor stars - it's just the obvious use of autotune, and often blatant cliches, do make this a slightly predictable record.
Naturally, this won't bother their fans, and nor should it - this is a definite improvement and growth on songs like the irritating 'All Time Low' from their debut.
Songs like 'Rocket' and 'Lie To Me' are huge tracks, the latter having a very nice rock influence (something the band has shown live with covers of The Goo Goo Dolls' 'Iris').
As safe as it may seem, boy bands in the 21st century aren't expected to be groundbreaking - at their best, they should be producing consistently infectious club and pop hits, something The Wanted have achieved on this record.
They have a certain roughness that will set them apart from their contemporaries, and Battleground is an encouraging, consistent sophomore release.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge (Follow me on Twitter @AlistairMcG)
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